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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Leftover Night: Chicken Rice Wraps

This was a real winner of a leftover night. It was soooo good. Granted we had some really good players this week: leftover chicken tikka masala, a bit of avocado, and even some cilantro on hand.

Here's the cast of characters:

We had cilantro, 4-5 canned artichoke hearts, a little bit of brown rice, chicken tikka masala, 1/4 of an avocado, and basmati rice. We also had part of a cauliflower head that I forgot to include in the picture. In all truthfulness, we had some other stuff too, like some leftover spaghetti sauce and some leftover mac and cheese. I didn't take a picture because I knew I wouldn't use them for this meal, but next week I think I'll take a picture of all our leftovers so you can get an idea of what I end up choosing to put together.

I knew these things would be pretty good put together, though I wasn't sure how the artichoke hearts would do. (I ended up not really even noticing they were there--not sure if that's a good thing or not). I was also a little worried because I'd planned to add sour cream to this (we had had a few tablespoons that I knew were nearing expiration), but apparently Kip had eaten them with his chicken the night before. I was worried we'd need some kind of a sauce. In the end, this was just fine with the seasoning from the chicken. However, a little Ranch dressing (a home-mixed kind; we don't usually love the bottled Ranch) drizzled on was pretty dang good too. Finally, I knew I'd need to hide the cauliflower because I knew it wouldn't go over well, but good heavens, you can't just eat rice and chicken for dinner. Okay, you can, but I feel better about myself when I add more vegetables to the mix.

To make the wraps:

1. Heat a small bit of oil in a frying pan.

2. Chop your cilantro (a generous handful), artichoke hearts, and cauliflower (I chopped my cauliflower into tiny tiny pieces because it was my purely evil intention to hide it in that rice--worked like a charm by the way). Shred your chicken.

3. Add cauliflower or any other firm vegetables you're using to the oil. Add a bit of salt. Stir fry until tender. Add cooked rice to the pan. I used all the brown rice and some of the white rice. Let it sort of fry a la fried rice. Add chicken to the pan. Let it heat through. Add any leafy stuff. I added the cilantro here, but you could also add spinach leaves if you've got some of that hanging around looking pitiful.

4. You can serve this as is, or wrap it as we did in a tortilla shell. Serve with avocado slices and perhaps a drizzle of Ranch dressing.

Note: The chicken tikka masala was very flavorful and spicy. If you're working with chicken or meat that is less punchy, you might want to add some appropriate spices to the oil at the beginning.

The verdict:

We liked this better than we'd liked the original meal of chicken tikka masala. The rice toned down the spicy chicken and the vegetables mixed in/hidden in the rice added a nice something something to the meal. Kip wanted more even after it was gone. Awesome.